Top 5 Best-in-Class Omnichannel Retailers

By Jessica Binns — October 15, 2013

Some of the industry's most familiar names landed at the top of a list of retailers deemed to be leading omnichannel enterprises by their peers.

In RIS News'Omnichannel Readiness report, tied for first and chosen by 45.8% of retailers are perennial leaders Nordstrom and Apple. Macy's tallied 37.5% percent of the vote, with Walmart trailing closely behind with 33.3%. Rounding out the best-in-class list are Target and Best Buy with 20.8% apiece.

These retailers are held up by their peers as enterprises that enable a seamless shopping experience across channels by integrating services, technologies and processes. What steps have their taken to achieve this and what's at stake with omnichannel preparedness?

Survey respondents say they're missing out on 6.5% of revenue as a result of not being an omnichannel retailer — which translates to $65 billion being left on the table.

Data indicates that retailers have focused their initial efforts on updating the twin pillars of retail: merchandising and supply chain.

Retailers' top priority for the next 12 months is shifting to a single transaction platform that unifies POS, e-commerce and m-commerce, with 65.4% planning such an investment.

The current lack of a true omnichannel transaction platform available on the market today is driving 53.8% of retailers to rely on a hybrid of many channel-specific platforms linked together.

E-commerce edges out POS for the primary transaction platform of choice, with 23.1% of retailers preferring the former and 19.2% opting for the latter. Not surprising, half of retailers say e-commerce is the consumer touchpoint most fully integrated across channels.

Price matching emerged as a significant trend, with 40% of retailers deploying the technology in their stores.

In the next 12 months, 23.1% will implement geolocation technology in and around their stores.

Among omnichannel technologies that retailers are evaluating for future implementation, social shopper check-ins emerged as the top consideration, with 50% of retailers mulling this over.